Writing a diet is a complex “matter”

N.H. Marco dott. Marchetti Researcher at the Department of Biomedicine and Prevention University of RomeTor Vergata

Losing weight is simple, but a balanced and personalized diet

is essential for safe weight loss

Often, by the term of diet, we mean a nutritional regimen that can make us lose weight. As a matter of fact, the word diet comes from ancient Greek, it means correct lifestyle and has little to do with weight loss. Perhaps, starting from this literary estimate, the conviction is born that for the purpose of losing weight it is sufficient to eat less. At least this is an approximate syllogism, which is probably the origin for the endless failures of slimming diets. Unfortunately however, when we talk about weight loss, we frequently resort to DIY ( do it yourself ), to information collected on the web, to the device that calculates energy supplies, or to an exotic and fashionable diet found in the newspaper. All these are procedures doomed to fail – and along with a widespread malnutrition by excess, they are underlying considerable damage to health and the famous yo-yo effect.

Yet the ketogenic diet, turning out to be extremely healthy and effective after prescribed and supervised by a specialist, may be highly dangerous if left to DIY. It is good to stress it again: to lose weight in a completely healthy way, simple calorie restrictions are not sufficient, on the contrary .it is necessary to customize the diet to the patient’s individual needs . A correct diet therapy, in fact, embraces several targets which all together contribute to improving the subject’s health, especially when a weight loss therapy is related. Quite many factors are to be considered and the necessary intake of macronutrients, micronutrients, fibers and water must be correctly evaluated. Especially the subject’s health state and any possible presence of pathologies must be determined with accuracy. After that, starting from a thorough evaluation of the body composition and the nutritional status, the "diet" must ensure the correct protein intake. Diet programs with poor protein intake do not help you slim down, but they let you lose weight ,because they make you waste away causing a damage.. The quantity of total protein intake should be established in relation to the lean mass. Once established this quantity it will be required to choose the quality. Meat, eggs and fish are known to be rich in protein, the difficulty is that proteins are not all equal because they differ from each other with respect to their biological value and bioavailability for example. The biological value of a protein is related to the presence of the essential amino acids, while bioavailability is the amount of protein supply actually being used. Other values to be considered are the N.P.U.(net

protein utilization), the chemical index, and D.U.C. (digestive utilization coefficient), to name only a few. If these parameters are not duly taken into account, there is a danger that the protein amount supplied may not be completely assimilated and therefore used to cause wasting , or loss of muscle mass. The muscle mass , conversely, should always be safeguarded, for it is the true "engine" of the organism, as well as the main responsible of the basal metabolic rate value. Also fat intake, determined correctly in terms of quantity, should be graded by its quality and cover a sufficient dose of essential fatty acids, a valid supply of mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids and, in addition, a limited quantity of saturated fats. For this purpose, the main nutrition indicators for quality should be evaluated, such as atherogenic index taking into account the atherogenic potential of fat supply, and that of thrombogenicity assessing its antithrombogenic power, and cholesterol - saturated fat index (CSI), which reveals total lipid quality of the diet. Eating fat by discriminating only in terms of quantity is wrong. Finally, the quantity of carbo intake should be regulated according to the total calorie intake and as part of the established quantity, should be preferred integral sources and ancient grains. Furthermore, by evaluating carbo sources, consideration should be given to the possible presence of glycation products (AGEs) and contaminants such as glyphosate. Among the micronutrients, the intake of vitamins and minerals must be carefully calculated in order to avoid dangerous deficiencies, by favoring fresh and seasonal fruits and vegetables and, in the diet therapies in which they are not provided for, they should be included in the form of supplementation. In conclusion, composing an effective and healthy weight loss diet involves study, ability and proficiency, and quite many parameters and many factors contrasting each other must be assessed. Losing weight is simple, losing weight in complete health state is an absolutely different matter.